AdBlue in a Diesel Tank in Lower Brailes? Don't Start It
If AdBlue has gone into the diesel tank, leave your motor off then keep your ignition off. Chemically, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and no harm happens until your engine pulls it round. Caught before your engine has run, AdBlue in a diesel tank is generally a drain and a thorough flush, done where the vehicle is in Lower Brailes. First, call us on 0333 366 0103.
Those opening minutes: AdBlue in your diesel tank in Lower Brailes
Do:
- Take the keys out, so nobody switches the ignition on.
- Put your hazards on if you are anywhere close to moving traffic.
- Which product, and roughly what volume? Save the bottle or your receipt, and we will see.
- Call right where you are. Quote a OX15 5 postcode or the nearest street sign, and nobody has to search for you.
Do not:
- Not even for a second, and not to roll the vehicle: your engine remains off.
- Your ignition remains off: on lots of diesels, switching it on is enough to run the pump.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't work: AdBlue separates out rather than thinning.
- Don't drive it anywhere, not even a short stretch down Friars Lane.
- Draining your tank on your own beside the road isn't one to try.
The staff on duty at any Lower Brailes forecourt — the The Forge Garage among them — will normally lend a hand rolling it clear if you ask. Parked on your own driveway? Then it remains exactly where it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
Not the engine but the exhaust is where AdBlue belongs. Its own reservoir keeps it, and from there it is fed into your exhaust, and there it treats the fumes. No part in an injection pump is designed for this liquid — and none of it was intended to travel that way.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. The intake sucks fuel from the deepest part of your tank, and that is just where AdBlue ends up: as it is denser than diesel, it sinks. A car topped up on a drive in Compton Wynyates overnight and left unstarted is the straightforward case. No pump has pulled the AdBlue up so far — though once your engine runs, that is what is pulled first, directly from the bottom of your tank.
From there it causes two kinds of harm. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps working on the parts it gets to for as long as it remains there. A car left standing around Lower Brailes with AdBlue already in its lines is worse by the morning; one with AdBlue just in its tank is not. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water gives none of that, and that is a second form of damage.
AdBlue in a diesel: why it is regularly worse than petrol
Put petrol in a diesel at the another forecourt nearby and you have an issue of thin fuel. Mixed into the diesel and sitting still, it's no threat at that stage; running the engine is the harm.
AdBlue in a diesel is a fault of the wrong substance altogether. It doesn't burn, so it cannot just be run through. Crystals and corrosion remain after the next tankful, and AdBlue splits back from your diesel, and so thinning it can't work. That is why the flush matters so much, and trying your engine "to see" costs more with AdBlue than nearly any other slip — in Stourton or the heart of Lower Brailes alike.
The same good news applies as with petrol. Emptying a tank is the easiest part on a fuel system, and with no start-up, the AdBlue stays in it — anywhere across Warwickshire the vehicle has stopped.
Lower Brailes: how AdBlue ends up in a diesel tank
No one means to do it. The AdBlue filler on plenty of cars sits right next to the diesel filler, at times under the same flap, and the two caps can look alike in poor light. Mostly it is never the filling station: a driver picks up a bottle driving home and pours it in outside the house.
Usually, it occurs in one of a couple of familiar ways. A warning light comes on during the school run, and the top-up occurs in a hurry outside Brailes Church of England Primary School. In the evening, a bottle is tipped in on a driveway near Butchers Lane. Or someone new to that flap tops up your car after dark, stopped in the car park by The George.
Hired vehicles, new motors, fleet motors, or the spare vehicle in a family with both fuels: the least known cars see it most. Keep it off: that is the first step to an identical slip, wherever in Lower Brailes or the remainder of Warwickshire you happen to be.
Started the engine with AdBlue in the diesel tank around Lower Brailes?
The AdBlue has left the tank, then. Via the filter, along the lines, and — with any running — into the injection pump and each injector: that's where it travels.
You may see your engine running roughly, smoking, losing power, showing warning lights or cutting out, possibly on the way back from Castle Hill Coppice or halfway across Lower Brailes. No starting it again to check: pull over when safe, then switch it off. With each start, more of it is pulled through.
Lower Brailes sits under 10 miles from the M40; if you were on it, leave at the next junction and stop safely instead of driving on.
How far it went matters. A couple of hundred yards across Lower Brailes to the car park by Milestone is a very different job from a run towards Oxford, under 25 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the system with each mile. Let us know about how far it had come.
Once the engine has run, the flush includes more, and all of it is done where your car has stopped. Spotted soon, it very seldom leaves permanent damage.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve in Lower Brailes?
The car remains where it is, whether that is a road beside War Memorial, a drive, a lay-by or a forecourt around Lower Brailes, and the van comes to it. Before anything else our engineers ask what was put in, roughly how much, and if your engine has been run, because those replies determine the work.
On the spot, the tank is then drained, and both the polluted diesel and the urea leave at once. A full flush counts much more after AdBlue than after petrol, because residue won't clear away on its own. Clean diesel goes in after the filter is cleaned — or swapped, when it needs to be — and then your vehicle is tested. Not run? Then count on roughly half an hour on site for most jobs. Explosion-proof pumps mean a live forecourt safe to work on, and they're quiet enough to spare the neighbours at night.
The last step is to bleed your system on fresh diesel. At that point we start the engine and you set off, whether from a parking space outside Moreton-In-Marsh or a drive around Lower Brailes. Our technicians make sure it runs properly on fresh diesel before we leave. We do it all wherever the car has ended up, and it never needs to be taken to a workshop. You receive a VAT invoice and an engineer report after that, which is what insurers want.
About Lower Brailes itself
Lower Brailes is a small village in south Warwickshire, situated near the River Stour and close to the Oxfordshire border. Lower Brailes has a population of around 517 people and is characterized by semi-detached housing. Lower Brailes sits at an elevation of 109 metres, with nearby villages including Upper Brailes and Sutton-under-Brailes. Lower Brailes is located approximately 23.9 miles from Oxford and 71.1 miles from London.
AdBlue drains across Lower Brailes and Warwickshire
Over the OX postcode area, the vans taking AdBlue jobs in Lower Brailes reach most of Warwickshire as well, Upper Brailes, Winderton and Sutton-under-Brailes included. Guessing won't help by a border or somewhere hard to pin down; ring and ask.
A van that comes to you suits Lower Brailes, a village: you have no need to bring the car to us, since our technicians empty it on the spot, in a driveway, a residential street, a parking area or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Lower Brailes
Since each jobs differ, a flat figure wouldn't be honest. Whether the engine has been running, and for how long, comes first in what moves the cost. How much AdBlue got in comes next, and then the position of the vehicle, because an open driveway is easier for our van to get to safely than a tight space behind St George.
That's why each call from Lower Brailes starts with the same three questions, asked before giving a figure, not after: what got in, how much, and if it's run. With them, the range narrows to a single firm number.
Our quote is quoted during the call, before anyone leaves; settling up comes on the day, by card or by phone, with nothing upfront. Misfuelling cover comes with many insurance policies, so it pays to look at yours before the van arrives.
Lower Brailes: still alongside the car?
Then the most helpful thing you can do is nothing to the vehicle. Motor off, keys out, ignition off. Petrol in Diesel handles the rest, across Lower Brailes or wherever within Warwickshire, after you ring 0333 366 0103 saying it was AdBlue, roughly how big an amount, and if it ran.